NZ Parents refuse vaccinated blood for life-saving surgery on baby

[MedRxx]

New Zealand’s health service has made a court application over the guardianship of a four-month-old baby whose parents are refusing to allow his life-saving heart surgery to go ahead unless non-vaccinated blood is used.

The parents of the baby discussed their son’s health situation and their medical preferences in an interview with an anti-vaccination campaigner.

In the interview the parents say their baby has severe pulmonary valve stenosis, and that he needs surgery “almost immediately”, but that they are “extremely concerned with the blood [the doctors] are going to use”.

“We don’t want blood that is tainted by vaccination,” the father said. “That’s the end of the deal – we are fine with anything else these doctors want to do.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/30/new-zealand-parents-refuse-use-of-vaccinated-blood-in-life-saving-surgery-on-baby

The Scotsman Armando Iannucci nailed it when he said "The only shared reality we have is things we have seen on television"

Sadly, the replacement of scheduled broadcast news programs by continuous (and siloed) 24 hour a day entertainment "news" is limiting that shared reality.

I've no doubt these parents firmly believe they need to protect their baby from some terrible, but nebulous, harm from "blood that is tainted by vaccination"

This case is tragic enough; however, it seems most probable that the NZ court will appoint a guardianship to allow the surgery to proceed as NZ is a functioning society which I expect will protect the child

Consider the even more tragic case of Mariah Walton:

...born with a small hole in her heart, which could have been repaired in early life, but is now in and out of hospital for her condition, which has become life-threatening.

The 21-year-old and her siblings, from the US state of Idaho, are now campaigning for a change in the law so parents such as theirs who choose to follow “faith healing” can be prosecuted.

“My lungs burn because I can’t get the oxygen I need,” she told local news channel KTVB.“They used to pray over me. The’d say: ‘God’s going to heal you, just have faith’ and all kinds of stuff… I think it’s time to prosecute them”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-life-threatening-heart-lung-condition-parents-prayer-medical-treatment-doctors-mariah-walton-boise-idaho-a7766741.html

The Guardian had a longer and more informative article about her and the issues raised (which are basically the same as those in the NZ situation) at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/13/followers-of-christ-idaho-religious-sect-child-mortality-refusing-medical-help

About that same time I heard an interview with Ms Walton on a podcast (which one, I don't recall) where she said something along the lines of "My parents have killed me because of their religion. It is not MY religion"

Reading the NZ article brought her to my remembrance. The "news cycle" being what it is, I haven't yet this morning been able to find out if Ms Walton was able to have her needlessly needed heart-lung transplant, or if she is even still alive.

If anyone knows...

[bucolic_frolic]

1. All treatments have side effects, but you go with what medicine prescribes

Put out the biggest fire to fight the smaller ones later, even if that is giant microchips in your head!

[Xipe Totec]

4. My mom had one of those chips in her head

For control of Parkinson's. It allowed her to reduce her dosages of medication by 3/4. It worked marvels and allowed her to live to 83 years.

[littlewolf]

2. I have heard of that here in the states as well

for planned surgery .. even before covid and the vax.

[Dorian Gray]

3. Those parents

are negligent and prone to conspiracy thinking. Feel bad for that little baby who needs intervention now.

I can't imagine not listening to doctors about this.

[brewens]

5. There is a process at least here in the USA to use a designated or dedicated donor.

I think it would be a dedicated donor for that. They just need someone unvaccinated with the right blood type to volunteer and a doctors order. There used to be a charge of I think $350 per unit for that. I've been out of the business for about five years. I was a designated donor for platelets twice.

[littlewolf]

6. thank you didn't know what it was called

but that is what I was talking about upthread.

[MedRxx]

7. Directed Donations are not as straightforward as they appear

Directed blood component donation—where one person donates blood specifically for the use by another—first appeared soon after the recognition that AIDS could be spread by blood components. The procedure became popular. However, problems soon became evident.

The underlying assumption was that someone asked to be a directed doner [henceforth DD] had no chance of having AIDS. Uncle Bob asks nephew Gary to be a DD. Gary, who has not come out as MSM, is reluctant to do so. Uncle Bob and the rest of the family put pressure on Gary and coerce him into donating.

In the early days, there was no reliable/rapid test for HIV presence available. Screening questions were replied upon. When going to donate at the local community hospital where Bob was having surgery would Gary self-identify as being MSM, or would he keep his mouth shut?

Multiple studies showed that the risk of blood borne viruses (HIV, HepC, HepB) was higher in DD than in community donations since most at-risk people simply did not routinely donate at the local blood bank

DD for "non-vaccine contaminated blood" leaves possible DDs in much the same situation of possible coercion and with the possibility of having to flat out lie. Will the prospective DD admit to their requesting family member that, well, gosh, I did get vaxxed.

With AIDS there was a clearly documented possible harm (even so some DD were not truthful), whilst with "vax-contaminated" blood the harm is virtually certain to be purely imaginary. However, the prospective DD is still placed in an ethically difficult position—although any real-world harm will almost certainly not occur, no matter how forthcoming or not they are.

For those who wish to explore further, here is a recent Ochsner Clinic article giving a broad overview of directed donation
https://www.ochsnerjournal.org/content/21/3/281
The bottom line, however, is that DD arose to meet a specific potentially lethal consequence of transfusion, and has since expanded to many other indications—none of which are imagined or fictive conditions.

[SYFROYH]

8. Even in New Zealand. Wow.